Now, as the Republican frontrunner comes within closer reach of his party’s presidential nomination, we’re beginning to see the sort of scrutiny that would have been both badly needed (and surprisingly out of place) just a few months ago.

This morning, Trump called into Wisconsin broadcaster Charlie Sykes’s radio show to talk about the states’s upcoming primary. Wisconsin votes for its presidential preferences next Tuesday, and Ted Cruz currently leads polling in the state.

Sykes started the interview by explaining that Wisconsin Republicans value “civility, decency and actual conservative principles,” and things didn’t get better from there.

With a few minutes left in the segment, Sykes tells Trump that he’s one of a growing number of so-called #NeverTrump conservatives, who claim that they’d sooner stay home, or even vote for the Democratic Party’s nominee, rather than support Trump for president.

That might explain the line of questioning Sykes pursued — or, you know, he could just be doing what good journalists should have been doing since Trump proved early on that he wouldn’t be shedding any of his reality TV persona to run for president.

If you’ve been waiting for someone to confront Trump about his candidacy’s gigantic contradictions, the interview is worth a listen.

Photo: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Dallas, Texas, in this file photo taken September 14, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Stone/Files

What’s your point? BTW other interviewers should emulate Sykes’ style with all candidates and remind them when they are not answering the questions. C’mon Otto I now you’re a Trump groupie but even you must be getting tired of Trump’s repetition ad nauseam of how smart, tough, popular & great. he is.

Replying to an article with a simplistic question about someone else shows an astounding lack of mental acumen. Are you a “bot” programmed to regurgitate certain responses based on the day of the week?

What a whiner. He refuses to take responsibility for anything. Why is he retweeting stuff? I wish that all the candidates and their over paid staffs would get off twitter and do some real reading and some real research on the real problems of our country and come up with some real solutions.

MY GOD!! The man is a moron! He has the gift of gab, and can talk people to death. I’ve known people with the gift of gab who were not very smart people. I very seriously think that some of these people like trump, get high paying jobs, or become successful wheeler-dealers, simply by walking a fine line between wearing other people down, and pushing them to he brink of breaking off all contact.

Democrats need to have a serious concern that they will participate in the election of Donald Trump into the Presidency by hacking on Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders cannot defeat Donald Trump in a general election. It would be a disaster for not only this country but the world if Donald Trump won the Presidency.

You know how they talked about just sitting home? Well, think about the Sanders folks sitting home if Hillary is the nominee. Seriously, the Dems that back Bernie do so for a reason. Trump wins either way with your thinking. Like Edward Snowden tweeted this election is between Trump and Goldman Sachs – and this country cannot survive another 4 years with Goldman Sachs in charge. Hillary is just another extension of Obama…puppets.

I’m going to hope Bernie wins because I think he’ll draw out the voters. More chance of Hillary supporters voting for Bernie than the other way around. Just remember Truman didn’t have a chance either…

The candidates, and their supporters, should just get past it. What irks me is a radio jock had an opportunity to ask Trump directly his views on Wall Street and what Trump intends to do with the “too big to fail” – and the jock pissed away the time talking about nonsense and his own views. Good grief, you get the opportunity to interview the candidates – use it wisely.

He could have asked more probing questions but he is the only interviewer I’ve seen so far that held Trump’s feet to the fire on anything. He called him on his boorish behavior and while being respectful chided trump for his childish responses. Most just fawn over Trump.

The jock was grandstanding. It was obvious he had his attacked planned. There was never any intention to do a decent interview which was deceptive on his part. Trump was right Cruz struck first. Reverse the roles – what if it was your wife or mother? In politics to “ignore” is dangerous. Don’t think for one minute that the jock wasn’t just looking for national attention and this was the moment in the spotlight for an AM radio jock. I’m surprised the Scripps company would allow such deceptive tactics.

Well isn’t that what jocks do? Although I would say his grandstanding was far more reserved than Trump’s. Trump tried to turn every question into a platform for him to trumpet his own self-perceived greatness. It’s true that Sykes could have challenged him on more substantial issues such as his absurd immigration “policies”, the “wall”, his praise of using torture and his stated intent to order the murder of the families of suspected terrorists. But to Sykes’ credit he did something that most interviewers fail to do when talking with any political candidate and that is point out that he did not address the question that was asked. All of the candidates are allowed to ignore the point in question and launch into a speech or tirade with little relevance to the issue under discussion. Trump is more coddled than most despite his whining about being picked on. The fact that he is allowed to “call in” instead of appearing in person is an example the special treatment he receives.

Radio used to be informative until it went from a public trust to a property right. Now it’s just a waste of 50,000 watts to hear some jackass jock smart off on a passé subject. It’s time to start asking the hard questions – like “What are your plans to handle the $700+TRILLION of Wall Street derivative debt?” and “Do you plan to have any Goldmans Sachs advisers or active in your administration?” and “What are views on the $4.7+ TRILLION of underfunded state and federal pension funds?”

“Wisconsin’s estimated funding ratio of 67 percent is still below the 80 percent benchmark that’s considered healthy by industry standards (for pension and retirement funds), and each resident in the state would have to pay $6,720 to erase the pension system’s $38.6 billion in unfunded liabilities, the study says.” Instead the AM radio jock wasted everybody’s time listening to him ambush Trump just to get his own rocks off…no educational or entertainment value whatsoever ever. The jock was apparently uninformed of the country’s major issues and he wasted value time and information.

You want to put any candidate’s feet to the fire – ask them the hard questions.

All good points. Those are the questions that should be asked at the pseudo-debates held by both parties. But the “moderators” could learn something from this interview. In the debates a question is asked and then the candidate launches a prepared spiel that often has very little to do with the question posed. None of the moderators make much of an attempt to point that out. Trump is possibly the worst in this regard. He always tries to make everything all about his imagined greatness but I guess that’s what narcissists always do.